Expert's answer

This is a fairly common question on the Eclipse newsgroups since there is not a GUI builder included in the standard SDK distribution. There is a Visual Editor Project available for download at the Eclipse site but it is a dormant project that is not under active development although it can be installed and used in current versions of Eclipse. Some people have also reported success using the GUI building tools from the Netbeans package in Eclipse development. The most commonly recommended GUI builder for Eclipse development is the WindowBuilder toolset from Instantians.com. WindowBuilder is a commercial product but non-commercial licensing options are available for recreational, hobby, or academic research or instruction purposes. There is also a set of GUI examples in the Eclipse examples package that can be used to construct user interface prototypes through a point and shoot interface and the example driver program includes the ability to generate a copy of the code generated which can simplify hand crafting basic user interface screens.